DawnMarie Kuhn for Islip Town Council, District Two
The Second District includes Bohemia, East Islip, Great River, Islip Terrace, North Great River, and Oakdale, as well as parts of Central Islip, Hauppauge, Islandia, Islip hamlet, Sayville, and West Sayville.
Councilman Jim O’Connor, a Great River Republican, is retiring, leaving his seat open on the Islip Town Council. At a time when Islip, like others in Suffolk, are going through growing pains, someone with a seasoned background makes for a worthy successor.
DawnMarie Kuhn brings a near-insurmountable wealth of knowledge to the table this autumn. The self-described “full-time student” tells us that Ms. Kuhn has a thirst for knowledge and experience, but not just in boilerplate degrees.
The Bohemia Republican holds credentials in social sciences, political sciences, graphic design, art, history, a dual master’s in public administration and urban development, a master’s in election and campaign management – which she has parlayed into her consulting firm – and a six-year-long study in quantitative methods and social sciences at Columbia.
Not only would Ms. Kuhn bring that experience to the table, but she would have the opportunity to put that into practice, something we’re gladly anticipating.
But Ms. Kuhn’s qualifications don’t stop there. She spent five years in the Town’s Sanitation Department as well as the Islip Resource Recovery Agency. She’s also served as Chief of Staff to Suffolk County Legislator Anthony Piccirillo since 2020. These combined give her the necessary background to handle constituent services and she’ll hit the ground running with her knowledge of how the Town government works.
She rightly points out critical attention to zoning matters, working with State and County partners to remediate the oppressive – and frankly, aggravating – Oakdale Merge, and a welcomed wait-and-see approach to the proposal of a North Terminal at Islip MacArthur Airport (ISP). As the Town’s economic engine and a potential regional transit hub, great care must be administered in shepherding changes there.
One of Ms. Kuhn’s pitches to us in her published interview with us demonstrates her practical knowledge as well as her ability to marry multiple concepts to take out the whole flock with one stone: her proposed expansion of the bay bottom leasing program. This initiative would expand the leasing of the Great South Bay to oyster farmers, which would not only bolster the shellfish industry in Suffolk – which contributes greatly overall to the State’s economy in that regard – but also chip away at much-needed coastal remediation, as oysters are prominent water filterers by nature.
Ms. Kuhn’s opponent is David Chan. The Oakdale Democrat proposes smoothing over the Town’s liaisons with local businesses and aims to cut red tape to expedite local commerce – a worthy goal, but not one we view as exclusive to his candidacy. Moreover, the fact that he initially screened with the Republicans before running as a Democrat makes us wary of possible political opportunism.
Even so, Mr. Chan can’t match Ms. Kuhn’s educational and hands-on experience. We think she’ll make an invaluable addition to the Town Council.
The Messenger endorses Kuhn.
